Can e-cigarettes (also called electronic nicotine delivery systems or ENDS) help curb smoking or are they just a smoke screen allowing tobacco companies to keep people addicted to nicotine? And how should global policy makers proceed when uncertainty makes agreement impossible? In this article, anthropologists Andrew Russell, Megan Wainwright and Melodie Tilson report from the 2014 UN Framework Convention on Tobacco control as the negotiators ultimately agree to disagree.